Chapter 5 Reaping for Nothing

What is even more speechless is that the checkbooks issued by various banks are not in the same format and have the same anti-counterfeiting technology.

As long as you look for young window staff in small and medium-sized banks, the check is genuine, but if you manipulate the content, it is easy to get it wrong.

If you go to Los Angeles, which is very close to San Francisco, not only are there more banks, but also to exchange checks in New York, it will be even more difficult for someone to find San Francisco.

Because the cross-state investigation is a matter of FB1, and the amount defrauded is small, FB1 will postpone it or even ignore it.

Thinking of this, Li Changheng couldn't help but wonder if he should try it?

After all, there are as many check and ticket frauds and frauds in the United States every year as there are digital "picture" frauds decades later.

The next day, the two went to a bank near Chinatown to exchange the check. Li Changheng, who was still thinking about whether to forge the check, noticed that Frank was a little absent-minded after walking a few steps.

I suddenly wondered in my heart whether Frank, who had started to keep shouting that he was tired from odd jobs in the past half month, was thinking of writing a check.

Sure enough, one night a few days later, when Li Changheng returned to the apartment, he saw Frank sitting on the desk and covering a book on the desk in a panic.

When the shift was over at noon the next day, Li Changheng used the need to buy materials as an excuse to ask the owner for an hour off, and followed Frank to a city bank outside the block.

But this kid didn't go directly to the bank, but went to the restroom of the shopping mall near the bank with a backpack on his back, changed into a suit-style school uniform with the school badge torn off, and took care of himself in a gentle manner, returning to the appearance of a rich boy. Really into the city bank.

This made Li Changheng sigh secretly, this guy is really just as he guessed, he is not a person who can endure hardship at all.

And this kid is also stupid and bold. Last night while Frank was asleep, Li Changheng saw his forged check from the United States. He just used a blue oil paint pen to change the number 3 into 8. He dared to deceive people. .

But in the end, the check that had been altered could be seen as long as one looked carefully, but Frank used his appearance to hook the young girl at the counter to focus all her attention on the flirting between the two of them. He got a $20 cash bill.

This kind of small payment check is equivalent to directly withdrawing cash from the drawer's account. In the end, no matter how the bank and the customer solve this problem, the money withdrawn by Frank cannot be retrieved.

And if Frank had been smart enough to paint his fingers with nail polish and not have his fingerprints on the check, it would have been much harder to convict.

Seeing this, Li Changheng was secretly happy, and at the same time, he stood in the innermost queue of the bank, watched Frank leave the bank with windy steps, and then went back to the house of the employer who hired them both.

Finish the day's work, get paid and come home to find Frank singing and frying steaks in the kitchenette.

"Hey Henry, look what I bought".

Frank picked up the frying pan with a full smile on his face, revealing a piece of special-grade steak full of dense snowflakes, that is, lean meat with many marbled fat lines.

Li Changheng, who knew why Frank was so generous, pretended to be surprised and asked, "Did you pick up money, or did you win the big prize? This steak costs 3 dollars, right?"

"Special grade, the second grade in the highest grade, 200 grams for $5, buddy." Frank's eyes flickered a few times, and he said with a smile, "Also, don't look down on people, can't I just find a good job?"

"Come on, just us two minors who haven't graduated from high school, have no academic qualifications, and no special skills. How can we find a high-paying job?"

"Who says I don't have special skills?" Frank turned and put the pan back on the stove, "You know my mother is French, and my father's ancestors are Spanish, right?"

"Well," after Li Changheng nodded, Frank turned around and said with a smile, "Now that the economy is in recession, many wine and whiskey distilleries that used to only focus on the United States are also forced to start exporting their products.

As for me, who can speak French and Spanish at the same time, because my grandfather’s family lived in Spain and my maternal grandfather’s family settled in France, and I am familiar with those two countries, I have become a senior talent.

With a basic salary of US$500 per month, plus commission, I will definitely make a lot of money in the future."

The speaker had no intention of the listener, and Li Changheng, who was still hesitating whether to take the risk of playing fake checks, suddenly wanted to learn French and Spanish with Frank.

The fact that many Americans know several languages ​​is nothing at all.

But he himself didn't realize that failing to prevent Frank from making mistakes today meant that he himself wanted to get rich, and the friendship with Frank was not as deep as he thought.

Otherwise, it's not like I can't live on, let alone have no future. Temporary hard work, in exchange for future security.

However, this is also understandable, after all, he was a poor and used to 22-year-old orphan in his previous life, and his desire to get rich must be stronger than ordinary people.

After eating the most expensive dinner after coming to this world, Li Changheng, who was washing the dishes, looked at Frank, who was sitting at the desk, resting his head on his hands and thinking about how to improve the method of altering checks.

In this way, Frank stopped going to work with Li Changheng the next day, but he agreed to spend an hour every night teaching Li Changheng French and Spanish.

A week passed unknowingly. Li Changheng came back at 8:00 pm with a backpack and a French dictionary in his hand. When he opened the door, he saw Frank sitting on the sofa. He stood up quickly and greeted him with his eyes.

But Li Changheng looked at the ordinary clothes on Frank, and asked with a sinking heart, "What's wrong with you?"

"I, I", Frank faltered a few words, and then said embarrassedly, "I have been fired, Henry, now I can only ask you to take me to work together, or else I will pay half of the rent of 40 dollars this month I'm sorry".

"No problem." Although Li Changheng didn't know what happened to Frank, he had to stop after only a week of making fake checks.

But while he felt pity in his heart, he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

There has been no sound reminder to stop Frank, it’s not because he didn’t want to let him test the water, and it’s a good thing that he can’t do it now.

But a few days later, after the two of them received a personal cash check again, although Frank did not say that he would not do odd jobs, but his behavior of being generous again, needless to say, he must return to his old business.

Li Changheng only thought about it for one night, and he roughly understood that Frank was forced to come back to do odd jobs before, 100% because of the rich guy who gave them the first check, or the bank where they opened the account.

After discovering that there was an abnormal amount in his bank account, he froze or changed the account, so that Frank could no longer use him as an ATM at will.

And Frank came back to do odd jobs for other rich people's checks and accounts.

Two days after the incident, Li Changheng, who was aroused by Frank and getting something for nothing, went to the largest public library in San Francisco, which was open until 10 p.m.

Find a few books that you can find, that have to do with checks, and books on actual cases that have been solved.

When I saw nine o'clock in the evening, I suddenly closed a book introducing check scams, put all the books back on the shelf, and left quickly with my backpack on my back.

When I got home and saw Frank eating an apple and reading a magazine, the first thing he said was, "We have to talk."